Custom IC Creator Configuration Tool

cicconf is a small command-line tool for managing an IC project that is assembled from multiple git repositories.

It is built for the workflow where:

• each IP lives in its own repository
• the top-level IC needs specific branches, tags, or commits of those IPs
• tool repositories should also be pinned with the design
• new IPs should be generated from a shared template

Why

An integrated circuit is usually made from multiple IP blocks maintained by different designers. Each IP should keep its own version history, but the top-level IC must still be able to lock each dependency to a known revision at milestones such as tapeout.

cicconf keeps that dependency list in a single config.yaml file and provides commands to:

• clone all configured repositories
• report the current revision status of each dependency
• update or pull selected repositories
• create a new IP directory from a template

Install

Latest development version:

git clone https://github.com/wulffern/cicconf
cd cicconf
python3 -m pip install --user -e .

Published version:

python3 -m pip install cicconf

Quick Start

Create a config.yaml in the project directory:

options:
  template:
    ip: tech_sky130B/cicconf/ip_template.yaml
  project: rply
  technology: sky130nm

cpdk:
  remote: git@github.com:wulffern/cpdk.git
  revision: main

tech_sky130B:
  remote: git@github.com:wulffern/tech_sky130B.git
  revision: main

Then clone the configured repositories:

cicconf clone

To inspect the current state of the working tree:

cicconf status

Configuration File

cicconf reads a YAML configuration file. By default it looks for config.yaml.

The options section is used by newip:

options:
  template:
    ip: tech_sky130B/cicconf/ip_template.yaml
  project: rply
  technology: sky130nm

Repository entries follow this pattern:

<folder>:
  remote: <git url>
  revision: <git branch|tag|hash>
  on_clone: <optional shell command>

Fields:

• remote: repository URL to clone
• revision: branch, tag, or commit to check out after clone
• on_clone: optional shell command run inside the cloned repository

Template-based IP creation uses options.template.ip. A template file can define:

• dirs: directories to create
• copy: files copied from a source IP when used
• create: files written from inline text
• do: shell commands executed after setup
• echo: text printed during generation

Commands

Top-level help:

cicconf --help

Current command set:

Usage: cicconf [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --config TEXT             Configuration file
  --verbose / --no-verbose  Turn on extra output
  --rundir TEXT             Where to run cicconf
  --help                    Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  clone   Clone repositories in config file
  newip   Create a new IP with name <project>_<name>_<technology> ...
  pull    Pull latest data
  status  Report the status of each of the configured IPs
  update  Update IPs to correct branch according to config file

Examples:

cicconf clone
cicconf clone --https
cicconf clone --jobs 8
cicconf status
cicconf status --no-fast
cicconf update --regex "tech_.*" --jobs 8
cicconf pull --regex "cpdk|tech_.*" --jobs 8
cicconf newip bias
cicconf newip bias --project sun --technology sky130nm

Documentation

Following the same documentation model as cicsim, the repo now has focused pages under docs/:

• docs/index.md: overview and install
• docs/config.md: configuration file format
• docs/clone.md: clone command
• docs/newip.md: newip command and template behavior
• docs/status.md: status output
• docs/update.md: update command
• docs/pull.md: pull command

The docs/ directory is set up for Jekyll in the same style as cicsim. To serve it locally:

cd docs
bundle install
bundle exec jekyll serve

Then open the local URL printed by Jekyll.

Notes

• If you combine --rundir with --config, prefer an absolute path for --config.
• clone, pull and update now use rich summary tables and can run repositories in parallel with --jobs.
• status now renders a rich table. Fast mode is the default and skips ahead/behind counting for speed. Use cicconf status --no-fast for the fuller git summary.
• update checks out the configured revision before pulling.